groundhog day
We left Melbourne today (29th January) at about 2pm, crossed the Pacific and the international date line (gaining a day) and arrived at 9:30 am. We seemed to spend the whole day standing in line. An hour and a half to check-in, the plane landed late, so we missed our air-bridge at LAX and had to bus it to the terminal. Then the line I had been dreading, US Customs control at LAX, two hours of line jumping mayhem, and four kids ready to fall asleep standing up! We ended up carrying IrishKing as he did fall asleep in the line. Definately not the way we wanted to complete a fourteen hour flight.
At last we got to the car hire where, as predicted, they tried to upsell me to the larger size vehicle, but I held my nerve and got the car I booked. We don’t have SatNav at home as I prefer to use MNav (man navigation) but I opted for it here as we need to cater for the whole “drive on the right” thing. It’s been worth every cent of the $11.99 a day it cost in the hastle we saved today alone!
We got to the hotel (The Marriott Residence Inn Anaheim) around about the same time we left Melbourne so our “extra” day was spent in travel. After a brief siesta to restore our nerves we ventured to the nearest Mall and got some shopping therapy. I’ll expect a few more trips like this.
On a side note; I was in this timezone once before. I worked at Spokane in Washington state for a student working holiday program twenty years ago. That time when I left to go home I went eastward to Ireland….and fifteen years after that to Australia….and now I’ve completed my first circumnavigation of the World!
Overall, it’s great to be here!